THE 



STORY OF A PICTURE 



BY 



F. R. DIFFENDERFFER, Litt. D. 



LANCASTER, PA, 

Reprinted prom The New Era 
1905 



THE 



STORY OF A PICTURE 



13Y 



F. R. DIFFENDERFFER, Litt. D. 



LANCASTER, PA. 

Reprinted from The New Era 

1905 



Gift 
Author 
(Person) 



INTRODUCTION. 



I desire to express my pleasure and 
thanks at being asked to read a paper 
before Donegal Cliapter, Daugliters of 
the American Revolution. My hearti- 
est wishes are with you in all the 
worthy purposes of your noble and pa- 
triotic organization. I, too, am a mem- 
ber of a kindred society. If I were 
not a "Son" I would wish to be a 
"Daughter." I bring no rhetorical 
bouquets to east into your laps. My 
subject does net allow of them. It 
deals with cold facts and figures per- 
taining to the early history of Lan- 
caster town — the town founded by 
your ancestors and later defended by 
the valor of your fathers. It will, no 
doubt, in some of its features, be more 
than a "twice told tale" to many of 
you, but I have sought to introduce 
some things that may not be so fa- 
miliar respecting this old shiretown 
which bore so conspicuous a part in 
the struggle for American independ- 
ence. 



THE STORY OF A PICTURE," 



As a rule.pictures are allowed to tell 
their own story, and, in most cases, 
they do so in a very satisfactory way. 
Some seem to require a certain 
amount of explanation. The one pre- 
sented to you this afternoon is one of 
the latter kind, and seems to require 
outside assistance, which I will en- 
deavor to give so far as I can. 
Some of you have seen it before, be- 
cause many copies have been made of 
the original, but most of them do not 
do it justice. The present one, while 
on a considerably smaller scale than 
the original, is, nevertheless, one of 
the best ever made irom it, so far as 
exact fidelity to details and clearness 
of outline are concerned. 

As you can see at a glance, it repre- 
sents a view taken of Lancaster at a 
comparatively early period. How early 
I am not prepared to say, but the year 
1800, I think, would not be very far 
from the mark. It may have been made 
earlier than that, but my own opinion 
is that its date is a few years later. It 
must, at all events, have been made 
subsequent to 1794, for in that year 
the handsome spire on Trinity Luth- 

'This paper was prepared at the re- 
quest of Donegal Chapter, Daughters 
of the American Revolution, and read 
before that organization on March 8, 
1905. The Lancaster County Historical 
Society, by resolution, ordered it to be 
printed in its Papers and Proceedings, 
which has accordingly been done. 

The writer hereby desires to ac- 
knowledge his obligations and express 
his thanks to Messrs. Steinman & 
Foltz, to Rev. W. Stuart Cramer and to 
S. M. Sener, Esq., for their courtesy in 
allowing him the use of some of the 
cuts used in illustrating this brochure, 
thereby much enhancing what value it 
may have. 



(5) 

eran Church was completed, and, as 
can be seen, forms one of the most 
conspicuous features in the drawing. 
Who was the artist? I regret to say 
that is a question 1 am unable to 
answer. No one knows, and probably 
the actual truth never will be ascer- 
tained. It has been conjectured that 
one of the Krug boys, whose father 
owned a tannery on the site of the 
present Stevens House, may have been 
the person. One of the family, accord- 
ing to tradition, wan a draughtsman 
of merit, and there has been a disposi- 
tion to award him the credit of the 
performance. Another tradition awards 
the credit to the son of a Moravian 
Bishop. One thing. However, is cer- 
tain, and that is, whoever he was, he 
was a person of no mean ability in 
pen drawing. The original is in India 
ink, somewhat faded by its century of 
exposure to light and air, yet retain- 
ing much of its original freshness and 
artistic beauty. 

Circumscribed Limits of the Town. 

That the picture was taken from a 
natural elevation to the southwest of 
the centre of the borough is apparent, 
and the legend that accompanies it so 
states. Most probably it was from the 
most elevated part of what has long 
been known as "Dinah's Hill," so 
named after an ancient lady of color, 
who made the locality historical 
through a residence there during the 
early part of the last century. At the 
period when the sketch was made, 
Lancaster had not reached out very 
far in all directions from the rectangu- 
lar plaza at its centre. Most of the 
borough or city, whichever it may 
have been, was confined to the dis- 
tance of two blocks in every direction, 
from the Square. A careful study of 
the drawing clearly shows the water 
course in the foreground that once ran 



(6) 

southward along what is now Water 
street, then, as now, the lowest 
point in the western half of Lancaster, 
and drained nearly one-half of its en- 
tire area. Its early name was "Roar- 
ing Brook," later "Hoffman's Run" 
and more recently "Gas Run. It will 
be observed, the built-up portion of 
the borough at that time only reached 
westward as far as "Water street. Only 
two buildings are to be seen beyond 
that, evidently barns or stables, and 
one of them thatched with straw. 
Looking to the northeast, where the 
store-house stood, on North Queen 
street, near James, we get an almost 
unobstructed view, although houses 
seem to have been straggling out 
North Queen street. The same thing 
is seen when we look southwest. The 
Quaker Meeting House, on the second 
block out South Queen street, stand- 
ing where the Odd Fellows' Hall now 
stands, seems about as far in that di- 
rection as buildings had been erected. 

We learn from Christopher Mar- 
shall's diary that the same state of 
things existed in a northeasterly direc- 
tion. His residence, orchard and bo- 
tanical garden were located on East 
Orange street, north side, between 
Lime and Shippen streets. This lo- 
cality was considered "out of town," 
and he uses language like this: "I 
then went into town;" "in the even- 
ing we again went into town to hear 
the news;" "after dinner went into 
town;" "after breakfast went down- 
town to Wm. Henry's," and so on, at 
least a hundred times. From all this, 
it seems very clear that in that direc- 
tion all the part east of Lime street 
was "out of town," and likely wooded. 

One exception, I think, must 
be made to this two-square 
limit as comprising almost all 
there was of the borough at 
that time. A writer in the Lancaster 



(7) 

Journal of 1838, who declares he was 
then " a bachelor of eighty," says: 
"While I am on Orange street, I can- 
not help contrasting the present ap- 
pearance (in 1838) with what it was 
in my boyhood. At that time it was 
little more than a wide lane, with half 
a dozen houses, nearly all of which are 
still standing. The peaceable and re- 
tired-looking mansion, with the willow 
trees in front, at present inhabited by 
the widow of Judge Franklin, I re- 
member as a commission store, where 
trade was carried on with a few In- 
dians still in the neighborhood, and 
also with those from a greater dis- 
tance, who exchanged their furs and 
peltries for beads, blankets, cutlery 
and rum." That was the old Shippen- 
Franklin-Reigart residence, at the cor- 
ner of Orange and Lime streets, owned 
by Christopher B. Mayer, who 
was born in 1756. He was a wealthy 
merchant and a brother of Colonel 
George Mayer, the hardware dealer, 
whose place of business was on North 
Queen street. The writer in the Jour- 
nal continues in this wise: "I remem- 
ber the forest trees standing on East 
King street, nearly as far down as Mr. 
McGonigle's tavern. (That is, to Ship- 
pen street.) What is now called 
Adams street, then Adamstown, was 
the most thickly inhabited place 
about." The Adamstown referred to 
was the early name given to the fif- 
teen-acre tract of land bought by Dr. 
Adam Simon Kuhn from Hans Musser 
in 1744, and on which ne laid out the 
ground-rent plot known as Adams- 
town. It lay between East King and 
Middle streets, or Howard avenue. 
Hard by it, Hans Musser also cut some 
or all of his remaining land into build- 
ing lots, and which was known as 
Mussertown. 

Hans Musser had some troublesome 
neighbors in the Indians who kept 



(8) 

hanging around the vicinity and set up 
their wigwams close by. In the same 
year, 1744, he complained to Governor 
Thomas that the redskins had barked 
his walnut trees and used the bark to 
cover their cabins. He claimed £6 
damages for the same, and was al- 
lowed £3. 

This discursive ramble has been 
taken to show very conclusively, as I 
think, that even after the Revolution- 
ary era, and down to 1800, the prin- 
cipal portion of Lancaster Borough 
was confined to two squares, or less, in 
every direction from zne centre of the 
town, although buildings were strag- 
gling, more or less remote from each 
other, over a far greater area. 

Finding of the Picture. 

But I must now retui'n to the pic- 
ture and relate the few known facts 
concerning it. Where it remained 
during the earlier years of its exist- 
ence is not known. It first came to 
public notice at a sale of the house- 
hold goods of Miss Catharine Dean, of 
North Prince street, on November 20, 
1870, at which time u was purchased 
by the late Charles R. Frailey, Esq., 
for "a mere song." How it came into 
the possession of Miss Dean, or how 
long it had been there, will, of course, 
never be known. Perhaps it may have 
been a gift from the artist himself. 
One day the late George M. Steinman 
and William Carpenter entered Mr. 
Frailey's office. Mr. Carpenter, 
being himself a surveyor and 
draughtsman, was at once at- 
tracted by the talent of the 
artist who drew the picture and ex- 
pressed his admiration for the same. 
"What will you take for it?" asked 
General Steinman. "Ten dollars," 
responded Mr. Frailey. The money 
was handed over to the latter gentle- 
man, and the picture at once pre- 



(9) 

sented to Mr. Carpenter. It was hung 
on the walls of his office, where it re- 
mained until his death, when it came 
into the possession of his son, Henry 
Carpenter, Esq., in whose office it 
hangs to-day. 

After this long introduction to the 
picture, I will mention some of the 
more important facts connected with 
the ten historic buildings, which, as 
you see, the artist has brought into 
special prominence. They were the 
most conspicuous structures in the 
then borough. With the history of 
most of these buildings you are all 
more or less familiar, but there are 
several not so well known, and of 
these I may perhaps be able to tell a 
few things that are not familiar even 
to well-informed readers. By refer- 
ence to the old drawing, it will be seen 
the ten buildings were plainly visible 
from the artist's point of observation, 
and can be easily identified by the key 
which is also printed on the drawing. 



NO. 1. THE OLD STORE HOUSE. 

The first one of the ten is the build- 
ing on the extreme left, standing out 
boldly. It is what was known then 
and in later times as the old "Store 
House." It was built by the State of 
Pennsylvania at an early period of the 
Revolutionary War, for the housing 
of military supplies, and from whence 
they were distributed as needed to 
other points. The building stood on 
the west side of North Queen street, 
between Lemon and James streets. 
The southern gable of the old building 
may still be seen in the first house 
Immediately north of the Baily car- 
riage works. The original building 
was of brick, and was one hundred 
feet long and thirty-five feet wide, and 
two stories high. Either during that 
war or at its close, the Store House 



(10) 

was rented or loaned to the General 
Government and continued to be used 
by tbe latter for the storage of certain 
military supplies which it had on 
hand. By an act of the Legislature, 
passed February 27, 1788, the Store 
House and the ground on which it 
stood was donated by the State to 
Franklin College, which had been 
chartered during the previous year. 
As the college did not require the 
building for its immediate uses, these 




OLD STORE HOUSE— SOUTHWEST CORNER OF NORTH 
QUEEN AND JAMES. 

stores were allowed to remain in it, 
as may be inferred from the following 
letter of General Knox, then Secre- 
tary of War, to General Hand, re 
printed here. It reads as follows: 

"War Office, 17th of April, 1790. 
"Sir, 

"By some mistake I find your letter 
of the ISth of January last has not 
been answered. 

"An expectation of some general 
arsenals being permanently estab- 
lished has hitherto prevented the re- 
moval or disposal of the few public 
stores in Lancaster. The expectation 



( 11 ) 

still continues, but its accomplishment 
does not appear to be immediate. I 
must therefore leave to your judg- 
ment — in case the college should de- 
mand the buildings or rent for the 
same — to make the best of the stores 
in case of being obliged to remove 
tnem or bargain for the rent of the 
buildings in which they now are. 

"It will not be necessary to make 
any returns at periods, but only on 
such occasions as from any causes 
shall happen. 

"I am. Sir, 

"With great respect, 

"Your most obedient servant, 
"H. KNOX." 

'The Honorable General Hand." 

What the result of this correspon- 
dence was, or how long the United 
States remained in occupancy of the 
building, there is, I believe, no evi- 
dence to show. The building was, 
however, thoroughly repaired and the 
lately chartered Franklin College es- 
tablished therein. The exact year 
when this occurred seems to be un- 
known. At all events, the buildings 
and ground, rather more than an acre 
in extent, which included two addi- 
tional lots donated by the Hamilton 
heirs, were sold about 1838, for ?2,000. 
The college was then removed to the 
Franklin Academy building, which 
had been purchased, near the north- 
east corner of Orange and Lime 
streets. The property fell into the 
hands of the late John S. Gable, who 
built a row of six houses on the old 
Store House site, the same ones to be 
seen there now. 

NO. 2. THE BARRACKS. 

The next structure on our picture is 
called "The Barracks." To better il- 
lustrate this and the other Govern- 



(12) 

ment buildings erected here, 
before and after the outbreak 
of the Revolutionary War, an- 
other picture or draft is presented. 
This is entirely new and ndhe of you 
have ever seen it before, the illustra- 
tion having been printed for the first 
time for this special occasion. It 
represents the large Barracks which 
stood on the corner of Walnut and 
North Duke streets, where the First 
M. E. Church now stands, fronting on 
Walnut westward as far as Christian 
street, thence northward along the 
last named street, as may be seen. 

The Government Stables. 

Directly opposite the Barracks, 
eastward, on North Duke street, 
was the row of buildings known 
as the Government Stables, 
and extending northward almost 
to the club house in which we 
are now sitting. A gentleman of this 
city told me not long ago that when 
exploring the garret of one of these 
houses, many years ago, he noticed 
wisps of straw and hay between the 
rafters and roof, and wondered at the 
time how they ever got there. It was 
only when I told him of the uses these 
buildings had been put to more than 
a hundred years ago that the presence 
of that straw was accounted for. Of 
course, the old building underwent 
great changes during its conversion 
into dwelling houses, and the latter 
give no evidence of the earlier uses to 
which they had been put. 

But I have been hurrying ahead of 
my original plan, and now beg leave 
to turn back and explain the existence 
of the map or plot on which these 
buildings are located, and which is In 
your hands. No person now living 
saw that Barrack Building, but as late 
as 1884 there lived a man who was 
born within a hundred feet of the old 



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^/7/V^J 



6r/=^££r 




LEMOA/ 






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W/iLNUT 



6 TREET. 



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( 13) 

Store House in 1794, and who, through 
his long life of eighty-eight years, 
lived within a square or two of all 
these public buildings, and who had, 
when a boy, played in and around 
them, and was fully acquainted with 
their appearance and all the other de- 
tails. That man was the late Chris- 
tian Zecher, whom some here, no 
doubt, remember. Some years before 
his death Dr. D. McNeely Stauffer, of 
New York, a native of this county, a 
learned archaeologist and excellent 
draughtsman, purposely interviewed 
Mr. Zecher, and procured from him all 
the facts and particulars relative to 
these four buildings. From these de- 
scriptions Dr. Stauffer made a drawing. 
This was submitted to Mr. Zecher for 
inspection and correction. Some few 
changes were made and the map as 
corrected is the one before this or- 
ganization to-day. Its accuracy is be- 
yond question, and I regard it as one 
of the most valuable of the historical 
documents relating to the early his- 
tory of our city that we have. 

The New Barracks. 

The new Barracks, the one repre- 
sented on the map, was built for a 
two-fold purpose — to provide a place 
of safety for the frontier people who 
were driven from their homes by 
the Indians and to house the 
forces that should pass through Lan- 
caster, or be stationed here, and also 
as a safe place in which to keep the 
prisoners captured from the enemy. 
As the sequel proved, they were used 
far more often for the latter purpose 
than for the former. 

Why the Barracks Was Built. 

After the defeat of General Brad- 
dock a most savage and barbarous 
war was begun by the Indian allies of 
the French all along the fron- 
tier. To protect the people, a series 



(14) 

of block-houses or forts was estab- 
lished all along the Kittatinny or Blue 
Mountains, beginning a little above 
Easton and running down to the 
Maryland line, a little west of Harris- 
burg. About twenty-five of these forts 
were built along that line alone, each 
manned by from twenty to seventy - 
five provincial militiamen and at a 
cost of £85,000. Berks, Leba- 
non and Dauphin counties be- 
came the scenes of the most horrible 
Indian massacres. More than three 
hundred men, women and children 
were ruthlessly butchered along the 
Kittatinny range. The depredations 
did not reach the present bounds of 
Lancaster county, but the alarm was 
• great, and the people demanded the 
erection of a fort in this place also. 

The following letter from Edward 
Shippen to James Hamilton shows the 
sentiment prevailing among the 
people :2 



= Edward Shippen, not the least im- 
portant member of the Shippen family 
of Pennsylvania, was the son of Joseph 
Shippen, of Boston and Germantown, 
and grandson of Edward Shippen, the 
founder of the family in the United 
States. He was born in Boston in 1703. 
Early in life he entered the employ of 
James Logan, and later became his 
partner in business. He was elected 
Mayor of Philadelphia in 1744. He was 
also Judge of the County Court. In 
1752 he came to Lancaster, where he 
resided until his death, in 1781. He 
became the County Prothonotary soon 
after coming here, and held the office 
until 1778. In early life he laid out 
and founded Shippensburg, Pa. He 
was the Chief Burgess of Lancaster at 
the time of the Indian massacre at the 
Working House. His son, Edward 
Shippen (1729-1806), was the father of 
"Peggy" Shippen, wife of Arnold, the 
traitor. 

James Hamilton, to whom Mr. Ship- 
pen's letters are addressed, was born 
in 1710. He was the son of the cele- 
brated Andrew Hamilton, the lawyer 
who defended the printer. John Peter 
Zenger, whose trial forever established 
the freedom of the press in the LTnited 
States. He was Prothonotary of the 
Supreme Court of Pennsylvania; elected 
member of the Provincial Assembly in 
1734, and re-elected five times; was 



(15) 

"Lancaster, Dec. 5, 1755. 
"Honored Sir: 

"I received the favor of yours of 
the 24th of November, and we are all 
much pleased by your willingness to 
contribute to the building of a block- 
house. The savages who committed 
the murders in Paxton are now be- 
lieved to be very numerous; perhaps, 
one hundred. A number of families, 
but thirty-five miles from us, are en- 
tirely cut off. Farmers are flying 
from their plantations to Reading. An 
alarm last night about twelve o'clock; 
we assembled in the Square, say three 
hundred, with but fifty guns; it was 
shocking to hear at such a moment, 
when, in expectation of the savages, 
that we had neither a sufficiency of 
guns nor of ammunition. Thanks be 
to God, the alarm was false. The 
block-house will be built on the north 
side of the north end of Queen street. 
There will be a wide ditch around it, 
a small draw-bridge; one important 
use is to place our wives, girls and 



Mayor of Philadelphia in 1745-46; was 
commissioned Lieutenant Governor of 
the State in 1748, but resigned in 1754; 
was again Deputy Governor from 1759 
until 1763. On the departure of John 
Penn to England he administered the 
State Government, as President of the 
Council, until the arrival of Richard 
Penn, in 1771. Subsequently he was 
Acting Governor for the fourth time in 
1773. He was made a prisoner on 
parole in 1777, and lived at Northamp- 
ton during the British occupation of 
Philadelphia. He was the owner of a 
500-acre tract of land, on part of which 
Lancaster was laid out, and lots sold 
on ground-rent conditions. 

Bush Hill Mansion, the family seat of 
the Hamiltons in Philadelphia, was 
built by Ex-Governor Andrew Hamil- 
ton in 1714. It stood on a tract of land 
bounded by "what is now Fairmount, 
Vine, Twentieth and Twelfth streets. 

Bd"ward Shippen and James Hamil- 
ton were life-long friends, and the for- 
mer, as seems to be implied in one of 
the letters quoted, had promised to 
keep the latter informed of what was 
going on in Lancaster Town, which 
Hamilton had founded and where he 
had large, monied interests. 



(16) 

children within, that they may be in 
safety. These are fearful times. God 
only knows how they will end. 
"I am yours, 

"EDWARD SHIPPEN." 

Another letter, also from Shippen 
to Hamilton, reads as follows: 

"Lancaster, Dec. 5, 1755. 
"Honored Sir: 

"The fort we have agreed to build 
is as follows: For the stockade, the 
logs split in the middle.and set on end 
three feet in the ground, placed on the 
north side of the town, between 
Queen and Duke streets; with cui- 
tains 100 feet. The planks of the bas- 
tions, 16 feet; and the saws of said 
bastions 30 feet each. 
"Yours, &c., 

"EDWARD SHIPPEN. 
"James Hamilton, Esq., Bush Hill." 

The third letter is by the same 
writer, and addressed to the same 
man. It is of great historic interest, 
and is here presented. It was, how- 
ever, dated twenty-two years after 
the first one. The Revolutionary War 
was then on, and the letter not only 
confirms what will be said of the 
building of the Powder House, but it 
brings to the front another and a new 
Continental storehouse, of which 
there is no mention anywhere that 1 
know of, and concerning which local 
historians seem never to have heard. 
The building must have stood where 
the old High School building now 
stands. That is historic ground in the 
fullest sense of the words. But here 
isi the letter: 

"Lancaster, June 2, 1777. 

"Dear Sir: George Ross- is building 

a continental store, about 18 feet wide 

and one story, on lot 210 Chestnut 

street and Prince, the length of the 



.17) 

lot on Chestnut. Mark Burd, Adjutant 
General, has given orders. 

"Mr. John Hubley is putting up the 
brick magazine. He has also a fine 
kiln at work. As it is my duty to in- 
form you of all proceedings here, 1 
can only say, I shall faithfully obey 
your instructions. 

"Your affectionate friend, 

"EDWARD SHIPPEN. 
"James Hamilton, Esq., at Bush Hill." 

Some of the Prisoners. 

The first prisoners of which I have 
found any record came to the Bar- 
racks in the fall of 1775. Some 
were sailors taken from the Brit- 
ish ships that had stranded on the 
New Jersey coast, and some that had 
been captured during G-enerals Mont- 
gomery and Arnold's invasion of Can- 
ada. The officers were as a rule 
lodged at the taverns or inns, and the 
privates sent to the Barracks. Many 
of the officers had their wives and 
children with tuem, and these latter 
had a pretty rough time of it. Gen- 
eral Howe at one time sent through 
the lines, by permission, both provis- 
ions and clothing for their use, but 
William Henry'^ confiscated a portion 



^ No man in Lancaster played a more 
conspicuous or important part in our 
local history during the Revolutionary 
era than William Henry. He was born 
in Chester county, of Scotch ancestors, 
on May 19, 1729. He came to Lancas- 
ter about 1750, and at once began the 
manufacture of firearms. He was ap- 
pointed armorer to General Braddock's 
expedition and also that of Gen- 
eral Forbes. He became prominent in 
local affairs. Was a Justice of the 
Peace in 1758, 1770 and 1777; an Asso- 
ciate Justice of the Common Pleas and 
Quarter Sessions in 1780; Burg-ess from 
1766 to 1775, and Treasurer of the 
county from 1777 to 1786. Was one of 
the incorporators of the Juliana Li- 
brary. Nowhere was there a more 
ardent or more trusted patriot. ■Was 
a member of the Assembly in 1776 and 
in 1777 a member of the Committee of 
Safety. In 1778 he was appointed 
Armorer of the State and Assistant 
Commissary General of the United 



(18) 

of these, despite the earnest protests 
of the British officers. Of the 5,791 
men of Burgoyne's army captured at 
Saratoga in 1777, 2,431 were German 
mercenaries. Many of these latter, 
along with those captured at Trenton 
in 1776, were held in captivity here. 
Others were sent to Reading, Lebanon 
and Carlisle. Many of the Saratoga 
prisoners were kept here until the 
winter of 1778, when they were sent 
into Maryland and Virginia. Among 
the Hessians was an excellent band, 
which was hired by the citizens of 
Lancaster at a cost of £15 per night 
to play at the balls and entertain- 
ments given by society people of the 
borough at that time. Sometimes as 
many as 2,000 prisoners were held in 
this place at one time. They came in 
large numbers and often within a few 
days of each other. On December 14, 
1781, 781 of Burgoyne's English sol- 
diers arrived at the Barracks; on the 
15th came 783 more, and on the 19th 
923; all these left for other parts on 
the 19th, but on that same day 947 
Germans came along, and on the 
next day 935 more. 



States. In 1784 he was elected to Con- 
gress. During Howe's occupation' of 
Philadelphia, David Rittenhouse had 
his office in Henry's house, on East 
King- street, a few doors from the 
Square. There, too, Thomas Paine 
wrote the fifth number of his "Crisis." 
He was a skillful mechanic, and the 
invention of the screw-auger is 
claimed for him. He was an early 
patron of the painter West. His son, 
John Joseph Henry, as a youth of 
seventeen years, accomi)anied Arnold's 
expedition to Canada, and wrote an 
excellent history of that ill-fated cam- 
paign. Later, on the death of Judge 
Atlee, he became Judge of the Second 
Judicial District of Pennsylvania, 
which he held from 1793 until 1810, 
when he resigned. William Henry was 
stricken with disease while attending 
a session of Congress in New York, and 
died in Lancaster on December 15, 
1786. His wife acted as County Treas- 
urer after his death, and satisfactorily 
settled all his accounts. 



(19) 

In January, 1782, Congress ordered 
prisoners to Lancaster and two Hes- 
sian regiments, tliat of the Crown 
Prince and Von Bose, were quartered 
in the Poor House and made fairly 
comfortable.'' 

Fevers and other diseases fre- 
quently broke out among these pris- 
oners, causing many deaths and a pan- 
ic among the citizens. On June 13, 
1781, Judge Atlee wrote to President 
Reed that in addition to the 800 pris- 
oners already in the Barracks and 
stockades, some 500 more were on 
the way, and that all of them could 
not be accommodated, there being 
women and children among them, and 
150 being down with fever. The jail 
was also filled with prisoners. Dr. 
John Houston, the attending physician, 
called the attention of Paul Zantzing- 
er to this condition of things and ask- 
ed that some be removed. At last, 
many of these prisoners were removed 
to Baston, much to the relief of the 
people of Lancaster, as we can read- 
ily believe. 

About the Prisoners. 

Many other particulars relating to 
the old Barracks building might be 
given. Where so many soldiers were 
herded there were, of course, trou- 
bles of all kinds. Uprisings and plots 
to escape were continually in the air 
and often only too true. On March 
12;; 1781, President Reed informed 
the State Board of "War that the 
Lieutenant and First Magistrate of 
the county had informed him that the 
powder magazine contained a large 
quantity of ammunition and was in a 
very insecure condition, and that 
British prisoners had been heard to 
drop expressions that meant evil. The 
letter was followed on May 21, 1781, 



* See "German Allied Troops," page 
216. 



(20) 

by one from Col. Adam Hubley, who 
told of a plot the 800 prisoners in the 
Barraclvs had formed to escape. The 
project was nipped in the bud, how- 
ever. In spite of all precautions fre- 
quent escapes were made by the pris- 
oners. This was more difficult for the 
English soldiers than for the Germans. 
The latter had only to get a few miles 
away from the town to find shelter 
with German farmers. They did not 
wish to reach the British lines, but 
desired to remain in this country, and 
many deserted and escaped in order 
to bring this about. Between October, 
1777, and April, 1778, 160 of the 2,431 
Germans captured at Saratoga had 
deserted, and were cared for by their 
German farmer friends. In January, 
1777, John Hubley, the Barrack mas- 
ter, was instructed to put all the shoe- 
makers among the Hessian prisoners 
to work, he to make them a small al- 
lowance for their labor. Others were 
employed at the various iron works 
to make cannon and shot. Lieutenant 
Wiederbold, a Hessian officer taken 
prisoner, says in his diary under date 
of January 8, 1778: "Hessians were 
taken to Lancaster, where they work- 
ed during the summer on the farms. 
Congress paid them in money the 
value of their rations, and the farmers 
gave them pay besides. On June 4, a 
fracas occurred between the British 
prisoners and the guards at the Bar- 
racks, and they were only subdued 
after a few were killed and some were 
wounded." (See Wiederbold's Diary.) 
There were always Tories ready to 
render aid to British deserters. In 
October Jacob and Christian Grove 
were fined £150 each for that offense. 
On the petition of some citizens two- 
thirds of the fine was remitted. 

An English officer who was cap- 
tured at Saratoga and came to Lan- 
caster a prisoner inDecember, 1778, 



(21) 

has this to say of our own peculiar- 
style of architecture: "Lancaster is 
the largest inland town in the United 
States, containing a population of 
about 3,000, Germans and Scotch- 
Irish. Most of the houses had an ele- 
vation before the front door and were 
entered by ascending high steps, re- 
sembling a small paicony with 
benches on both sides, where the in- 
habitants sat and took in the fresh air 
and viewed the people passing." ^ 




CHARACTERISTIC LANCASTER ARCHITECTURE 100 YEARS AGO. 



Sergeant Roger Lamb, of the British 
army, who was captured with Bur- 
goyne's army at Saratoga and brought 
a prisoner to Lancaster in March, 
1782, describes this stockade as a 
"pen.'"' 

The Barrack Masters. 

I have had much difficulty in try- 
ing to find out who were the barrack 
masters at these Barracks. The first 



"Lieutenant John Anbury's Diary. 
^Lamb's Journal of the American 
"War. Dublin. 1809. 



(22). 

I have been able to trace was 
Major John Hubley. That was in 
1777. Michael Hubley held the posi- 
tion in January, 1778. At that time 
he petitioned the Supreme Executive. 
Council, "that in consideration of the 
great increase of the duty in his de- 
partment his Pay and Rations as Bar- 
rack Master of Lancaster should be 
equal to that of a Major in the army; 
that he be allowed such assistance 
from time to time as might be neces- 
sary; and that he be allowed For- 
age for a Horse from the day of his 
first appointment as Barrack Master." 
On May 25, Judge William Atlee wrote 
to President Reed that Captain Ham- 
bright, the barrack master, had done 
much work on the building, employing 
persons to do the same; he says he 
ordered the blockhouses at the four 
corners of the stockade to be put in 
order. On April 1, 1784, the follow- 
ing motion was adopted in the General 
Assembly: "Whereas, the Barracks, 
Public Store House and Powder Mag- 
azine in the Borough of Lancaster are 
now vacant, and for want of a proper 
person to take care of them are sub- 
ject to destruction and spoil," it was 
resolved that the Supreme Executive 
Council should appoint a proper per- 
son residing in Lancaster to take 
charge of the said buildings with au- 
thority to rent them for the highest 
rent he could get. His salary was to 
be £6. He was to keep the buildings 
in repair, and repay himself the cost 
of doing so out of the rent. 

What Became of the Barracks. 

Mr. Zecher, to whom I previously 
referred, said that the building be- 
came dilapidated and began to tum- 
ble down. There being, perhaps, no 
one to exercise authority in the mat- 
ter, the bricks were carted away by 
everyone who had need of them, and 



(23) 

no doubt many of the old houses in 
the city to-day have bricks in their 
walls taken from the Barraclis brick 
quarry. This statement is in part 
confirmed by a letter from John 
Screiber, the last barrack master of 
whom I found a record. On August 
16, 1784, he wrote to President John 
Dickenson, saying: "I beg leave to in- 
form the council that one of the G-able 
Ends has lately been broken down by 
the fall of a chimney from that pan 
of the Barracks which was lately sold; 
this accident has laid open some ot 
the rooms and will receive much in« 
jury from the weather; indeed, the 
whole of the Barracks are in a ruinous 
situation, and unless a new roof is 
put on, the whole Barracks will be de- 
stroyed in a short time." Exactly 
one month later Barrack Master Screi- 
ber wrote to Secretary of War Arm- 
strong that Dr. Frederick Kuhn's two 
chimneys having fallen, that individ- 
ual was not only going to remove the 
bricks belonging to these chimney&, 
but also those knocked out of the 
gable end of the Barracks. He also 
reported a request from some mer- 
chants for storing their powder in 
the Powder House, but that William 
Henry, who had the keys, had refused 
to deliver them until the State's own 
powder had been removed. 

The last incident connected with 
the Barracks that I shall relate is, 
that, according to tradition, the duel 
between Dr. Jacob Reiger and Cap- 
tain Stephen Chambers, on May 12, 
1789, in which the former was mor- 
tally wounded, took place behind the 
Barrack building. As tradition is a 
great liar, it is for you to receive or 
reject the story as you may feel in- 
clined. 

I have tried in vain to find out 
when, and in what way, the State dis- 
posed of the Barracks and stables. 



(24) 

The Legislature in April, 1826, trans- 
ferred to the city of Lancaster all its 
right and title to the Powder House, 
and the two lots of ground belonging 
to the same. I think it more than 
probable that the Barracks and sta- 
bles were disposed of in the same 
way. 

The Middle Street Barracks. 

It will be in order at this place to 
mention that there was another and 
almost as early a Barracks building in 
Lancaster. It was erected as early as 
1759-1760, upon the return of Colonel 
Forbes after the capture of Fort Pitt, 
to accommodate the English troops 
who came with him. Later it was 
called the British prison, because it 




MIDDLE STREET BARRACKS, 
1759-1886. 

was used for the detention of British 
soldiers captured during the Revolu- 
tionary War. Lancaster was elected 
as their place of confinement because 
the prevailing sentiment of a large 
majority of the citizens was decided- 
ly hostile to the English cause. These 
Barracks were erected on what was 
formerly Middle street, now Howard 
avenue, near East King, and stood un- 
til 1886, when the opening of Shippen 
street caused its demolition. It is 
said to have accommodated 500 men. 
The main building was intended for 



(25) 

the use of the officers. In the rear 
was a large open space in which 
wooden huts were erected to shelter 
the common soldiers. James Webb 
was Barrack Master as early as 1764. 
In June 16, 1769, he resigned the po- 
sition and James Ralph, who was then 
Chief Burgess of Lancaster, was at 
once appointed. In 1777 William Baus- 
man was appointed Barrack Master. 

An Exciting Episode. 

This old Barracks was the scene of 
one of the most exciting episodes of 
the War for Independence. The 
story is too long to be given here, but 
a brief outline of it may be told. The 
prison was surrounded by a stockade 
of logs and strongly guarded, but, in 
spite of all precautions, prisoners 
escaped and found their way back to 
the British army. General Hazen, 
who was in charge of the post, devised 
a plan to detect the method of escape. 
A Captain Lee, a patriot officer, was 
selected to carry out the scheme. He 
disguised himself as a British soldier, 
and was then thrust into jail with the 
rest. For a time he could discover 
nothing, but one night, while lying 
awake, the door was opened silently 
and an old woman came in, touched 
the nearest sleeping prisoner, who 
arose; then she approached Lee, 
looked at him, whispered, "not the 
man, but come." This seemed to be 
the opportunity so long awaited.and he 
also arose and followed. The woman 
took an alarm and went out, telling 
Lee to follow. The sentry had retired 
to a shelter out of the rain that was 
falling. They found a door unbarred 
and passed through. They were taken 
to the cottage of the old woman, who 
was well known. All present were 
about to be sworn to secrecy, but an 
alarm gun fired at the Barracks induced 
a hasty departure and they left the 



(26) 

cottage in charge of a guide. In 
twelve days tliey reached the Dela- 
ware. They always traveled at night, 
stopping during the day time in the 
barns and farm houses of Tories, 
where they were fed and cared for. 
But one of the number recognized Lee, 
who had once punished him, and he 
told the leader who he was. This 
man attempted to kill Lee, but both 
were seized by some loyal countrymen 
and carried before a magistrate. Lee 
told his tale, but he was not believed, 
and he was sent to jail. He prevail- 
ed on a jailer to carry a note to Gen. 
Lincoln, who was at the time in Phila- 
delphia, who almost failed to recog- 
nize him in his rags. Lee returned 
to Lancaster. He was able to retrace 
the ground he had gone over and was 
instrumental in arresting and punish- 
ing fifteen persons who had aided the 
prisoners to escape. 

The Powder House. 

In the next square on North Duke 
street, on the west side, and near the 
corner of James street, stood the Gov- 




OLD POWDER HOUSE— 1777. 



ernment Powder House. On February 
6, 1777, the Council of Safety, then 
sitting in Philadelphia, resolved, 

"That a Powder Magazine of the di- 
mensions of 24 feet by 36, and other 
military store houses, be built in or 
near the Borough of Lancaster, for 



(27) 

the use of this State; and that John 
Hubley, Commissary, provide ma- 
terials, employ Workmen, and see the 
same finished with all possible 
despatch, and that Major John Hub- 
ley take up on ground rent, or pur 
chase, such grounds as iare necessary 
for the said Buildings." 

That Major Hubley lost no time in 
complying with the order of the Coun- 
cil of Safety is to be inferred from the 
fact that on August 19 of the same 
year, by direction of the Council, "an 
order was drawn on David Ritten- 
house, Esq., for the Sum of One thou- 
sand Five hundred Pounds, towards 
defraying the Expences of building a 
Powder magazine and' Store Houses 
at Lancaster, he being appointed a 
Commissioner for that purpose by the 
Council of Safety, for which he is to 
account."' 



At the beginning of the Revolu- 
tionary struggle the interests of the 
several colonies and the General Gov- 
ernment were not well defined, so that 
those furnishing supplies were uncer- 
tain who was their debtor or to whom 
they should look for payment. This is 
seen in the manner the following ac- 
counts are made out. Both these bills 
are in the possession of the writer: 

Michael Dieffenderfer's (Innkeeper) 
account against the Continent of 
America for entertaining rifle men: 
Captn. Price's Company.... 1. 7. 
Captn. Cresap's Company... 3. 17. 10 
ditto " " 4. 14. 

ditto for a Riffle 6. 0. 

Captain Stephenson 0. 19. 6 

Captain I>owdle's Company. 1. ,4. 



18. 0. 6 
Received of John Hubley eighteen 
pounds and six pence for the above 
Acct. 

MICHAEL, DIEFFENDERFBR. 
Octr. 24, 1775. 



Adam Reigart's Account against the 
Continent of America for entertaining 
Riflemen and for Monies advanced to 
Drumers and Pfeiffers: 
Captn. Smith's Company... 4. 13. 11 
ditto Drumers and Pfeiffers. 4. 2. 6 



8. 16. 5 
Received of John Hubley the above 
eight pounds, sixteen shillings and five 
pence, October 24, 1775. 

ADAM REIGART. 



(28) 

NO. 3. THE OLD JAIL. 

The third building indicated in our 
picture is the old jail. This, however, 
was not the first one built for the 
county's needs. An earlier one was 
ordered to be built at John Postle- 
thwait's Tavern.seven miles southwest 
of Lancaster, and £600 were voted 
for it and a Court House, but for some 




THE OLD JAIL— 1775-1851. 



reason the plans were changed and 
they were never erected. Robert 
Barber, who was the first elected 
Sheriff of the county, erected one of 
logs at his own expense, on his prop- 
erty, at Columbia, hoping to get the 
county seat located there, but he, too, 
was disappointed. The first one built 
in Lancaster town was erected in 
1739. It also was of logs, and had to 
be enlarged several times. The second 
one, of brick, was built in 1745-6, 
and the third, or stone one 
of our picture, in 1775. It was 
there that the murder of the fourteen 



29 



Conestoga Indians occurred on De- 
cember 27, 1763, by the "Paxtang 
Boys." It was not within the jail 
itself, however, that the tragedy took 
place, but in the yard of the Work 
House, which adjoined the jail, on the 
south side, extending to West King 
street. 

The French and Indian War led to 
the usual results of warfare — a demor- 
alized community and the multiplica- 
tion of vagabonds. In 1763 a petition 
was presented to the Legislature pray- 
ing for an act to authorize the erection 
of a "House of Correction." The pre- 
amble to the act is as follows: 

"Whereas, it hath been represented 
to this House, by petitioners from a 
considerable number of inhabitants ol 
the borough and county of Lancaster, 
that they now, and for a long time, 
have suffered most grievously, as well 
by unruly, disobedient servants, as by 
idle strolling vagrants from divers 
parts, who have taken shelter in the 
county and borough; that drunken- 
ness, profane swearing, breach of the 
Sabbath, tumults and other vices so 
much prevail, that it is not in the 
power of the magistrates to suppress 
them, and preserve peace and good 
order, having no house of correction 
for the punishment of such offenders." 
The asked-for permission was granted 
and a House of Correction, or Work 
House, was erected. In it the Indians 
were killed on December 27, 1763. 
Felix Donnelly was appointed Keeper 
of the Work House in November, 1763. 
In May, 1765, Matthias Booch was ap- 
pointed in his place. 

This Work House, or House of Cor- 
rection, must not be confounded with 
the "House of Employment," whicn 
was established in 1751, where a large 
number of indigent persons were given 
something to do. Stockings were made 



(30) 

on a very extensive scale in tMs house, 
and the borough became noted for its 
production of that article. 

The first assault on the Conestoga 
Indians by the "Paxtang Boys" was 
made on December 14, 1763,when they 
unexpectedly put in their appearance 
at the Indian town of Conestoga, in 
Manor township, when three men, two 
women and one boy, six in all, were 
brutally slain. The remainder of the 
tribe being away from home, selling 
baskets and other Indian wares, es- 
caped the massacre. These, fourteen 
in number, were then brought to Lan- 
caster and placed in the Work House 
for safety, where, on December 27, 
they were all killed, three men, three 
women, five boys and three girls, four- 
teen in all, wiping out all that com- 
posed this ancient tribe. The slaugh- 
tered Indians were buried in one grave 
near the corner of North Duke and 
Chestnut streets, and there their 
bones remained until May, 1835, when, 
through the building of the railroad, 
they were again brought to light. 

I will be excused, I trust, for intro- 
ducing a personal allusion at this 
point. I am, I believe, with a single 
exception, the only person living who 
heard the story of that bloody tragedy 
from the lips of one who was a per- 
sonal witness of it. My grandfather 
at that time was a lad of eleven years. 
Along with scores of others, for the 
evil news flew rapidly through the 
town, he ran to the Work House to 
learn what had been done. I, in 
turn, a boy of thirteen years, many 
times heard him tell what he saw on 
that occasion. Our two lives span 
that gulf of 142 years, 1763-1905. rite 
also told me what no contemporary au- 
thority has mentioned, that, while all 
the Indians were either dead or mor- 
tally wounded, several of the dying 



(31) 

warriors by the significant motions of 
their hands, threatened or indicated 
a desire for retaliation or revenge — 
"the ruling passion strong in death. " 

As a lad, I remember to have stood 
times without number at that aged 
grandsire's knees, listening with a 
swelling heart as he told me how he, 
a volunteer for the war, carried the 
flag of his native State over the win- 
try waters of the Delaware into the 
glorious conflict at Trenton; how he 
carried it through that hot midsum- 
mer day at Monmouth and over the 
ensanguined snows at Valley Forge. 
The tears that gathered in those sight- 
less eyes, as these "tales of the times 
of old" fell from his lips, proudly, yet 
moaestly told, have burned them- 
selves into my memory, and there 
they will live enshrined forever. 

It was not until 1774 +hat the build- 
ing of the stone structure, which was 
familiarly known as "the Old 
Jail," pictures of which are 
familiar to us all, was begun. It was 
completed in 1775, at a cost of $4,675. 
It stood on the ground now occupied 
by the Fulton Opera House. Part of 
the original jail-wall may be seen at 
the rear of the building on Water 
street. The old jail stood until 1851, 
when the new jail standing in the 
eastern part of the city was com- 
pleted. 



NO. 4. THE DUTCH PRESBY- 
TERIAN CHURCH. 

It is a curious fact, that in various 
documents dating back to the first 
third of the eighteenth century, Penn- 
sylvania is called an "Island." How 
this designation arose it is, no doubt, 
useless to inquire at this late day. 
The "High Dutch" or "Calvinistic" 
Church was the name by which the 
Reformed Church was first known in 



(32) 

State documents. In the account ot 
its organization in 1736, the year in 
which the first church was built, we 
flnrl the following: "Church Protocol 
of the newly built Reformed Church, 
here in the Island of Pennsylvania, in 
Cannastoken in the new town named 
Lancaster." The church itselt was 




FIRST REFORMED CHURCH, 1757—1850. 

the first church of any kind built in 
Lancaster. It was constructed of 
logs and stood on the southern side of 
the present church lot. This old log 
church was torn down in 1753 and a 
new one begun in the same year, 
and completed in 1757. The 
material of the old one was converted 
into a dwelling erected on the north- 
west corner of Christian and Orange 
streets, where it stood until 1836, 



(33) 



when it was burned down. The sec- 
ond church building stood until 1850, 
when the present structure was built. 
Some eminent names have been as- 
sociated with this church. Pastor 
John Jacob Hock was the first regu- 
larly ordained minister who served 
the congregation. After him came 
the noted Otterbein, the erratic Stoy, 
the zealous Helfenstein, the learned 
Becker, the earnest Harbaugh, and 
the well-read Titzel — the present pas- 
tor emeritus. 




POSTLETHWAIT'S TAVERN— FIRST COURTS HELD HERE FROM JUNE 
9, 1729, TO NOVEMBER, 1730. 



NO. 5. THE COURT HOUSE. 

Lancaster county was organized in 
1729 at John Postlethwait's Tavern, 
seven miles southwest of Lancaster, 
and there the first term of the County 



(34) 

Court was held on June 9, X?29. The 
Courts continued to be held there 
until November, 1730, when they 
were held in Lancaster, but in various 
taverns, there being no regular Court 
House. The erection of one on the 




THE OLD COURT HOUSE, 1787—18 53. 



Square was commenced in 1737, and 
completed about May, 1739. It was an 
unpretentious brick structure, two 
stories high, paved with brick and 
had a steeple. It was destroyed by 
fire on June 9, 1784, fifty-five years 
to the very day from the date when 
the first Court was neld in Postle- 



(35) 

thwait's. A more imposing structure 
was begun on the old site in 1784 and 
completed in 1787, at a cost of $15,758. 
That is the building seen in the pic- 
ture. It was also known as the State 
House, because the State Legislature 
met in it down to 1812, when the 
Capital was removed to Harrisburg. 
It was a fine specimen of the archi- 
tecture of that period, and noted t6r 
the beauty of its lines and its sym- 
metry. It is a burning disgrace to the 
authorities of the city of Lancaster 
that it was allowed to be torn down. 
Public sentiment to-day would not 
permit such a desecration of so noted 
a structure. 



NO. 6. ST. JAMES' CHURCH. 

It is well known that clergymen of 
the Church of England visited Lan- 
caster before the town was officially 
laid out, and preached here. The Rev. 
Robert Weyman was here in 1719, pos- 
sibly in 1717. The Rev. John Back- 
house also preachea here in 1728. 
There was no church here, and the 
church historians do not seem to know 
where the services werr: held. It was 
in the Court House, as I shall show 
later on. The records of St. James' 
parish go back no farther than 1744, 
the year the great treaty with the Six 
Nations was held here. In the follow- 
ing year, 1745, subscriptions were 
made towards building a stone church. 
The work proceeded slowly. It was 
not until 1755 that every part of the 
work on the inside was completed. It 
was built of blue limestone, and ex- 
tended forty-four feet on Orange 
street and thirty-four feet on Duke 
street. The spire, galleries and other 
improvement's were subsequently 
added. The funds to build a church- 
yard wall were raised by a lottery in 
1764. The funds for the steeple had 



(36) 

been supplied in the same manner in 
1761. No picture of this early stone 
church has been preserved. It was 
torn down in 1818, and in 1820 a new 
brick church stood in Its place. Addi- 




ST. JAMES" CHURCH, 1820. 



tions and other improvements were 
made to that building in 1844, 1878 and 
1880. St. James' has numbered many 
eminent Lancastrians among her ac- 
tive members. George Gibson, John 
Postlethwait, Edward Shippen, Judge 
Yeates, George Ross, General Hand, 
Matthias Slough, Colonel Samuel J. 
Atlee and many more men who were 



(37) 

prominent in our early history were 
members. In this connection I must 
not omit the name of Dinah Mclntire, 
or "Old Dinah, the Fortune Teller," 
as she was generally called. She was 
the wife of John Webster, the colored 
sexton of St. James' Church. She was 
once a slave, the property of Col. Mat- 
thias Slough, and died on May 4, 1819, 
at a great age — thought to have been 
113 years old. She was regular in her 
attendance at church, and rustled her 
silk skirt with the best of them as she 
swept into her seat. Humble though 
she was, and once a slave, she has im- 
pressed herself forever into the nomen- 
clature of our city by giving her name 
to one of its most promineE+ eleva- 
tions, while most of the big wigs who 
occupied more ostentatious pews have 
been forgotten these many decades. 

Among St. James' rectors have been 
men of more than loc-ai fame. The 
able Thomas Barton, the pious Dr. 
Clarkson, Dr. William Augustus Muh- 
lenberg, hymnologist and philanthro- 
pist, and the saintly Dr. Samuel Bow- J 
man were among the men who built 
up St. James' and made her famous. 
It is a curious circumstance that Dr. 
Muhlenberg, preacher, poet and philan- 
thropist, wTio at the age of thirty 
wrote that splendid hymn, "I Would 
Not Live Alway," at the age of seventy 
wished for ten more years of life to 
complete his grand philanthropic 
work in the vicinity of New York. 



NO. 7. PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. 

It is a singular circumstance, and 
not easily accounted for, that Presby- 
terianism, which was the first faith so 
far as is known to estaolish houses of 
worship in this county, was not suffi- 
ciently strong, or, at all events, did 
not build a church in this city before 



(38) 

the year 1769 or 1770. Blsev/here 
churches had long before been built 
by Presbyterians. At Donegal in 
1722; at Pequea in ^724, and at 
Middle Octorara still earlier. In 
the lower end of the county it was the 
dominant faith among the Scotch- 
Irish. Nevertheless, the fact remains 
that, while there was a congregation 
here as early as 1763, the first church 




PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, 1769. 



was not built until 1769. Perhaps, not 
to seem odd, or above their neighbors, 
the Reformed, Lutherans and Epis- 
copalians, the Presbyterians also held 
a lottery to pay for the little log church 
built on the samxe lot where the pres- 
ent stately church stands. Rev. John 
Woodhull was the firtit regular pastor. 
After a ten years' pastorate, he was 



(39) 

followed by the Rev. Nathaniel W. 
Sample, in 1780, who remained the 
pastor for the unusually long period of 
forty years. During nis incumbency 
the church was greatly enlarged and 
improved. I cannot omit alluding to a 
sermon preached in this church ou 
June 4, 1775, by the Rev. John Car- 
michael, which entitles him to special 
remembrance. A company of militia 
had been raised in the city by Captain 
Ross, and this company, in uniform, 
attended and listened to the sermon. 
Rev. Carmichael fully satisfied his 
hearers that, although a soldier of the 
Cross, he had strong convictions in 
favor of using more carnal weapons 
when the occasion demanded it. It was 
an eloquently patriotic discourse. Non- 
combatant Christians were bowled 
over in a way that must have fired the 
hearts of his listeners. Towards the 
conclusion of the sermon he said: 
"We have all the true friends of virtue, 
of liberty and righteousness on earth 

on our side We have all the 

angels of Heaven on our side 

Courage, then! Courage, my brave 

American soldiers Go forth in 

the name of the Lord of hosts; and 
may He protect you, bless you, and 
succeed your very laudable and grand 
undertaking in connection with all the 
militia of North America." 

The church was remodeled in 1877, 
and later the fine chapel adjoining 
was built. This church has had able 
men among its servitors, such as 
Woodhull, Sample, McNair and Mit- 
chell. Some of the most prominent of 
our citizens, such as Edward Shippen, 
William Montgomery, Judge Yeates 
and James Buchanan, were among its 
officers and members. 



(40) 

NO. 8. THE TRINITY LUTHERAN 
CHURCH. 

As was the case with all the other 
religious denominations in Lancaster, 




OLD TRINITY— 1761. 



the Lutherans hereabouts were visited 
by clergymen of their faith, who 
preached to them, married them and 



(41 



baptized the young children, at an 
early period. The first register of bap- 
tisms began in 1730, and a congrega- 
tion was organized three years later, 
but there was no church until 1738, 
the pastor at that time being the well- 
known John Casper Stover. The first 
church had a steeple, bells and an 
organ. Of this organ Lieutenant John 



4. 







Anbury, a British prisoner in Lancas- 
ter, in 1778, speaks in his diary as 
follows: "Largest pipe organ in 
America now in use at the Lutheran 
Church. Some of the officers went to 
see this wonderful piece of mechan- 
ism, and sent descriptions of it to their 
homes. Manufacturer had made every 



(42) 

part of it with his own hands. It had 
not only every pipe and stop, but had 
some pipes of amazing circumference 
and had keys to be played by the feet 
in addition to the regular keys." David 
Tannenberg, of Lititz, a famous organ 
builder of that period, was the maker 
of it. By 1761 the congregation had 
grown so large that more ample ac- 
commodations were required, and in 
the same year the lot on which the 
present church stands was purchased, 
and on May 18, 1761, the corner-stone 
was laid with imposing ceremonies. 
The new structure was eighty feet 
long and sixty feet wide. The erection 
of the present tower and steeple was 
begun in 1785, but was not completed 
until 1794. Eminent men have served 
the Old Trinity congregation. The 
names of Helmuth, G. H. E. Muhlen- 
berg, Endress, Baker and Greenwald 
are still held in fragrant remembrance. 
Dr. Muhlenberg was an eminent 
botanist and has been named the 
American Linnaeus. This fact brought 
him the honor of a visit from the great 
scientist, Alexander \on Humboldt, in 
1804. He wrote several works on 
botany and also a German-English 
lexicon in two quarto volumes. In 
1853-1854 the church was again re- 
modeled and extended. The chime of 
bells now in the belfry was put there 
in 1854. The commodious chapel to 
the south of the churcn building was 
dedicated in 1877. Thg spire of "Old' 
Trinity" has always been justly ad- 
mired for its symmetry and beauty. 

"Old Trinity" has the distinguished . 
honor of having within her sacred pre- 
cincts the ashes of two Governors of 
Pennsylvania. Thomas Wharton, Jr., 
President of the Supreme Executive 
Council, died in this city on May 23, 
1778, while that distinguished body 
was holding its sessions here. He was 
buried with military honors, and at 



(43) 

the request of the vestry was interred 
within the walls of the church. Gov- 
ernor Thomas Mifflin, one of the three 
Quaker Generals in the Revolutionary 
War, became the first Governor of 
the State under the Constitution of 
1790. He served three terms, from 
1790 until 1799, and died in Lancaster, 
January 21, 1800, while serving as a 
member of the Legislature, this city 
being at that time the capital of the 
State, was buried at Trinity and has 
a tablet erected to his meniory. 



NO. 9. ST. MARY'S CATHOLIC 
CHURCH. 

Among the early settlers in this 
city and county were Catholics, and 
missionaries of that faith came among 
them at an early date to minister to 




ST MARY'S CATHOLIC CHURCH, 

1762—1854. 



their spiritual needs. A mission was 
established in the city as early as 
1741. A log church was built on 



( 44) 

ground donated by Hamilton at the 
corner of Prince and Vine streets. It 
was destroyed by fire in 1760. Two 
years later a stone edifice arose above 
the ashes of the primitive early build- 
ing. The members of the congrega- 
tion, both males and females, are 
said to have lent their manual labor 
to the task. A large number of priests, 
some who later became eminent in 
their church, served the congregation 
between 1740 and 1823, when the 
most noted among its pastors, the 




FATHER KEENAN. 

Rev. Bernard Keenan, assumed 
charge, and served for a period of 
fifty-four years. No clergyman in 
this city was more highly esteemed 
and reverenced tnan Father Keenan. 
Everybody knew hirii and Lancaster 
had no more public-spirited citizen. 
He died in 1877, in the ninety-eighth 
year of his age. The congregation 
under the ministrations of Father 
Keenan grew so large that a new 
church became necessary, and in 



Le4C 



(45) 

1854 the stately church which stands 
on the same old corner was dedicated. 
A fire in 1867 caused so much damage 
to the building that a remodeling of 
the church became necessary and 
this was done in 1868. The building 
in the picture, of course, represents 
the small stone church erected in 
1762. 

NO, 10. THE FRIENDS' MEETING 
HOUSE. 

The facts concerning this meeting 
house are not so well known, and 
no picture of it was accessible. 
The records of the Sadsbury 
Quarterly Meeting are almost our 
only source of information concerning 
it. The Quakers came into the county 
at an early period. They were numer- 
ous before 1725. The statement of 
the well-known antiquarian and his- 
torical writer, Redmond Conyngham, 
that "a thousand families of l<'riends 
were settled in Lancaster county at 
the time or shortly after its erection," 
is not to be credited. Ihat would 
have been nearly one-haif its entire 
population. I have never seen any 
evidence to warrant such a statement. 
That they were here in very consider- 
able numbers, however, is not to be 
questioned. There was a "Quaker 
Society" here in 1754, for on May 1, 
in that year, James Hamilton deeded 
to three of its members, Peter Woi- 



^Redmond Conyngham, historian and 
antiquarian, "was born in Philadelphia, 
of Irish parentage, in 1781, and edu- 
cated at Princeton College. For a time 
he represented Luzerne county in the 
State Legislature. Prom that place he 
came to Lancaster, where he died, June 
16, 1846. He was married to Elizabeth, 
the daughter of Judge Jasper Yeates, 
of this place. Mr. Conyngham early 
manifested a fondness for antiquarian 
research, and became .our most pro- 
lific writer on. the Indian tribes of the 
county. His contributions to the His- 
torical Society of Pennsylvania and the 
American Philosophical Society, as 
well as to our local papers, were both 
numerous and valuable. 



^h J 



(46) 

rail, Isaac Whitlock and Thomas 
Poultney, "Trustees ot the Quaker So- 
ciety of Lancaster, two lots on the 
east side of South Queen street, sixty- 
four feet front and two hundred and 
fifty-two feet deep." The lots were 
numbers 138 and lc;9 on the Hamilton 
tract. About the same time, in the 
same year, the "Sadsbury Quarterly 
Meeting" records have the following 
item: "Sadsbury Monthly Meeting 
acquaints this meeting that the 
Friends living in and near Lancaster, 
have, for some time past, by their al- 
lowance, kept meetings for worship 
on First Days in Lancaster, and they 
do now, on behalf of those Friends, re- 
quest this meeting would appoint 
some Friends to give them a visit and 
to consider uow far they may be cap- 
able to hold and keep meeting for 
worship with reputation." As a con- 
sequence eight persons were appoint- 
ed a committee to come here on a 
visit of inquiry. In August and No- 
vember further reterences are found 
in the Sadsbury records. The com- 
mittee, among other things, said that 
"from information anu from a confer- 
ence they had with those Friends, and 
having considered their capacity (we) 
do unanimously think that if it was 
allowed them and liberty given to 
build a meeting house, it mighv be 
kept with reputation." The work of 
collecting funds was accordingly be- 
gun and £559.11.6 were subscribed. 
The Meeting House was completed 
about 1739, at a cost of £bol.6.3. It 
wni be observed the cost ^.d not ex- 
ceed the money in hand, which good 
example we moderns very rarely fol- 
low. There are good reasons for be- 
lieving that the attendance at certain 
periods was not what it should have 
been from the large Quaker popula- 
tion. Christopher Marshall, himself 
a Quaker,ex-communicated for having 



(47) 

allied himseli with the patriotic 
cause, occasionally attended the wor- 
ship. I give a few extracts from the 
diary of that very worthy and cred- 
itable chronicler: 

"July 6, 1780. To Quaker Meeting 
where were fifteen mankind and eight 
womankind, five of whom were 
strangers." 

"December 10, 1780. Went to meet- 
ing that consisted of six men and self, 
four boys, three women and two girls 
—16 in all." 

"January 14, 1781. Went to meet- 
ing that consisted of eight men and 
self, two women, two boys and twa 
girls — 15 — silent." 

"March 18, 1781. My wife and I 
went to meeting that consisted of 
eight men, seven women, five Doys,. 
three girls, silent — 23." 

"August 26, 1781. Went to meeting; 
consisted of six men and self, five 
women, three boys and one girl — 15.' 

Either the Quaker population at 
that time was far less than the his- 
torian tells us or they had fallen away 
from the "meeting" habit. Services 
continued to be held in this Meeting 
House until about 1810. After that it 
was used for a while as a scnool 
house, and from 1816 until 1822 the 
Rev. John Elliott, of whom I have no 
further information, preached in it. 
The Society of Friends grew weaker 
year by year in this city, and being 
no longer able to keep up their 
meetings, in March, 1845, the Meet- 
ing House and grounds were sold tO' 
uudge Ellis Lewis, for $±,250, the 
burying ground in the rear of the 
house being reserved. In 1846 Judge 
Lewis sold the property to the Odd 
Fellows, who built a hail upon it» 
which is still standing. 



(48) 

THE MORAVIAN CHURCH. 

Although the Moravian . Church 
building was one of the seven church 
edifices in Lancaster at the time this 
picture was made, it does not appear 
in the drawing, owing to the fact that 
it was a low structure and not visible 
to the artist from his view-point. B& 
ing, however, one of the oldest of the 
historic buildings of the borough, with 
a grand record, it may very fittingly 
close this sketch of the prominent 
public buildings of Lancaster in 1800. 




MORAVIAN CHURCH, 1746—1820. 



At its beginnings in this country the 
Unitas Fratrum, as the Moravians 
called themselves, were a missionary 
people, directing their efforts more 
largely than any others to the conver 
sion of the Indians. The congregation 
and church in this city owe their exist- 
ence to the efforts of Count Zinzen- 
dorf, who came here and preached in 
the first Court House in 1742, as did 
the Episcopalians and other denom- 
inations. In 1746 the modest stona 
church, represented in the accompany- 



(49) 

ing cut.was erected. Various prominent 
Moravian clergymen like Zinzendorf 
and Bishop Spangenberg preached 
there occasionally, although there 
was no resident pastor until 1748, 
when the Rev. Leonard Schnell lo- 
cated here. Among the more promi- 
nent pastors who served tne congre- 
gation were Christian Ranch, Peter 
Wolle, Charles F. Reichel, 1829-1834, 
at which time services in the German 
language were discontinued; Dr. Bahn- 
son, Henry A. Shultz, David Bigler 
and Dr. J. Max Hark. From its earli- 
est history many prominent and influ- 
ential families have been connected 
with this historic congregation. 

The old stone church was used as a 
place of worship until 1820, when it 
was taken down and the present one 
erected in its stead. The stone par- 
sonage was left standing, but in 1868- 
69 the church was remodeled and en- 
larged, so as to join the former, which 
is still standing. 



This completes the story of my 
picture. It is far longer than it was 
intended to oe. I am aware that I 
j..ave taxed your time unduly, but it 
may mitigate your criticism to know 
that many things were left out of it 
that clamored for admission. I am 
aware there is a limit even to the pa- 
tience of women, and have but one 
more item to offer. 

Unfortunately for us, our Lancas- 
trian grandmothers and great-grand- 
mothers, among their many virtues 
and accomplishments, lacked some 
things which we now wish they nad 
possessed. We know they had their 
balls and their routs, their social 
parties and their teas (not the pink 
variety, however), at which they talk- 
ed and gossipped and even hinted at 
mild scandals, but the cacoetJies scrih- 



(50) 

cndi was not theirs. They did not 
care to write. There were no Sallie 
Wistars, no Elizabeth Drinkers among 
them. 

Nor did our grandsires do much bet- 
ter in this direction. They, too, at- 
tended to their daily round of duties 
and allowed our historical chronicles 
to take care of themselves. I must 
make one exception, in favor of Chris- 
topher Marshall, a wealthy Quaker, 
excommunicated, however, because he 
espoused the warlike policy of 
the Province, who came here 
from Philadelphia in 1777, and 
remained until 1781. His diary 
is full of interest, and, but for 
him, we would know still less about 
ourselves and our city than we do. 1 
am glad, however, that I am able to 
offer j^iou a brief description of early 
Lancaster, the earliest I know of, and 
some of its people. It is by no means 
flattering, but it is entertaining never- 
theless. What is more, it gives us 
no hearsay evidence, but tells what 
the writer saw personally. It is from 
the journal of Mr. Witham Marshe, 
who was the Secretary of the Mary- 
land Commissioners, who, with those 
of Virginia and Pennsylvania, held 
the great treaty with the Six Nations 
at Lancaster in 1744. He kept a daily 
journal and from it I will give you a 
brief extract. He reached Lancaster 
at 2 o'clock in the afternoon of Thurs- 
day, June 21, 1744, and with his fel- 
low Commissioners from Maryland 
put up at Peter Worrall's inn, which 
was located on West King street, and 
called the "Cross Keys." The narra- 
tive says: "This town has not been 
begun to be built above sixteen years. 
It is conveniently laid out into sun- 
dry streets, and one main street. In 
the midst of which stands the court 
house and market. Through this runs 
the road to the back country on the 



(51) 

Susquehanna. There are several cross 
streets on each side of the main 
street, which are indifferently well 
built, as to quantity of houses. 

'The inhabitants are chiefly High- 
Dutch, Scotch-Irish, some few Eng- 
lish families, and unbelieving Israel- 
ites, who deal very considerably in 
this place. 

"The spirit of cleanliness has not 
as yet in the least troubled the major 
part of the inhabitants; for in general 
they are very great sluts and slovens. 
When they clean their houses, which, 
by the bye, is very seldom, they are 
unwilling to remove the filth far from 
themselves, for they place it close to 
their doors, which in the summer time 
breedis an innumerable quantity ot 
bugs, fleas and vermin. 

"The religions which prevail heSe 
are hardly to be numbered. Here are 
Dutch Calvinists, who have a church 
built with square logs, and the inter- 
spaces filled up with clay. In this a 
small organ, good for little and worse 
played on by the organist." 

"The sect of Luther have a church 
likewise. This is more spacious than 
that of the Calvinists, being built of 
stone, and is much larger than the 
other. The minister of this church is 
a gentlaman of good character, and 
by his true pastoral conduct keeps his 
congregation in good order.'" The" 
ministers of the Dutch churches are 
allowed no certain stipend for preach- 
ing, but are paid at the will of their 
hearers. This is a great tie upon 
them to do their duty, and makes 
them more diligent than our clergy 
are. Happy people. In this we may 
envy them. 

"A clergyman of the Church ot 
England sometimes^ ofl&ciates in the 



^This organ was replaced in 1769 by 

one made by the celebrated David Tan- 

nenberg-. whose full, rich tones are 

still to be heard on every Sabbath day. 

'"•Rev. John Dylander. 



(52) 

Court House, there being no church 
here built by those of that persuasion. 
The Rev. Mr. Craddock, who was the 
Episcopal Chaplain attached to the 
Maryland Commiissiion, preached in 
the Court House on June 24, 1744. 
There are a great number of Irish 
Presbyterians and several Jews, as I 
hinted before, with divers others 
that neither themselves nor any one 
else can tell what sect they follow or 
imitate. 

"The houses for the most part are 
built of wood, except some few, which 
are built of brick and stone. They 
are generally low, seldom exceeding 
two stories. All the owners of lots 
and houses here pay a ground rent, 
greater or less, according to the grant 
of them by James Hamilton, Esq., who 
is the proprietor of the town. 

"There are hills which environ 
Lrancaster, as likewise some thick 
woods, which in the summer render it 
very hot, especially in the afternoons. 
The soil is then dry and very sandy, 
which, when a fresh wind blows, al- 
most chokes the inhabitants. 

"The water here is very bad'; occa- 
sioned by their springs, and even 
wells, being stored with limestone. 
This palled my appetite, but this soon 
left me after I refrained from drink- 
ing the water bv itself. They have a 
very good market in this town, well 
filled with provisions and prodigiously 
cheap." 

That account was written 161 years 
ago. If Mr. Marshe could revisit us 
in the flesh, to-day, his words would 
be tuned to a different key. 



m 12 1905 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



014 365 187 3 



M\ 



